Pa. acting secretary of state deals with threats as election approaches

Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Leigh M. Chapman said Monday that her office has received threats over the upcoming election.

“It is the misinformation that is really fueling these threats,” said Chapman in a press call.

She said the Department of State has been in communication with the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security about election-related threats. She said both the FBI and DHS have visited various counties throughout the state and completed security assessments that counties have since responded to.

She did not elaborate on what the threats entailed.

Champan said threats spiked after a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled against a 2021 decision that said mail-in ballots without written dates, but returned on time, should be counted by election officials. Chapman said that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling will not have an effect on her office’s guidance in counting mail-in ballots this election, and that county elections officials should count mail-in votes that arrive in exterior envelopes with inaccurate or nonexistent handwritten dates.

Those specific mail-in ballots have had on effect on a couple of races throughout the state, including a Pittsburgh-area state Senate race in 2020, where state Sen. Jim Brewster, D-McKeesport, emerged victorious after all mail-in ballots were counted.

Part of the controversy over these elections has been exacerbated by the length of time it takes for Pennsylvania counties to count all their votes. No-excuse, mail-in voting has existed in Pennsylvania since the 2020 election, and so far, Democrats vote by mail at significantly higher rates than Republicans.

This typically means in closely-contested General Election races, Republican candidates go out to leads as the in-person votes are tabulated, which is typically finished on Election Night. In some cases, as the mail-in ballots trickle in over the next several days, Democratic candidates gain ground and can eventually overtake Republican candidates after all votes are counted.

That delay has been at the heart of efforts to sow distrust in Pennsylvania election process and has led to multiple lawsuits attempting to decertify the 2020 election results, all of which have been defeated in court.

Chapman said Pennsylvania law doesn’t permit counties to pre-canvass mail-in ballots. Counties in the state are only allowed to start canvassing mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day.

For this reason, Chapman urged patience when waiting for election results this year and said her office is expecting that results will take “at least a few days” to be finalized.

She said voters shouldn’t assume anything illicit is happening while counties count ballots, and noted that each county takes a different amount of time to count ballots.

“When there is delay in counting, there is nothing nefarious happening, it is just a county by county process,” said Chapman. “The counting process is a days long process … Voters should not expect complete results on Election Night.”

Chapman said nearly 1.3 million mail-in ballots have been requested so far for the November election, and that about 43% of them have already been returned. She expects voter turnout to be high this year

She also expressed desire for the Pennsylvania legislature to pass a law that would give counties two weeks to pre-canvass mail-in ballots, following election laws in other states around the country.

“Until we have pre-canvassing like in Florida, we will unfortunately have that delay in counting,” said Chapman.

Because Pennsylvania lacks pre-canvassing, she urged voters to turn in their mail-in ballots as soon as possible and those utilizing the U.S. Postal Service should mail-in their ballots at least a week before Nov. 8.

Mail-in ballots must be received by counties by 8 p.m. on Nov. 8 to be eligible.

Chapman reminded voters that today — Monday, Oct. 24 — is the last day to register to vote for the upcoming election on November 8.